Many imaging devices such as copiers, laser printers, and facsimile machines use toner cartridges. The toner cartridge contains many of the moving parts of the machine and contains a finite supply of toner. The original equipment manufacturers (OEM) intended for the consumer to use the toner cartridge until the initial toner supply is exhausted, and then replace it with a new laser toner cartridge. By placing many of the moving parts in the toner cartridge and making the toner cartridge disposable, the OEM reduced the amount of repair work required on the printers, copiers, or facsimile machines.
The used toner cartridge has many components that may be recycled. An industry known as the remanufacturing industry has arisen to take advantage of this fact. Remanufacturers take used toner cartridges, clean them, repair damaged components, replace worn out components, add new toner, and reintroduce these refurbished cartridges into the marketplace.
In the original manufacturing process, the OEM takes a toner hopper reservoir, seals it, and then ultrasonically welds it to a developer roller housing, creating a combined unit, the toner hopper assembly. The toner hopper assembly is further combined with a waste bin assembly and various other components until the toner cartridge is fully assembled.
In the remanufacturing assembly process, the remanufacturers must first disassemble the cartridge before they can refurbish the cartridge. The disassembly process is in reverse order of the assembly procedure. Access to the various subcomponents can only be accomplished by tearing the cartridge down to its basic parts. By separating the toner hopper reservoir from the developer roller housing, remanufacturers duplicate the condition the cartridge was in when it was new. In the remanufacturing process, after remanufacturers place a seal over the toner hopper discharge opening, they reattach the toner hopper reservoir to the developer roller housing, and continue on with the complete reassembly of the toner cartridge.
As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,605 to Jerry Stevens, remanufacturers can use a clip system to mechanically compress the developer roller housing against the toner hopper reservoir. The clamping clips are applied at two flanges, a forward and a rear flange, which are created at the juncture where the developer roller housing and the toner hopper reservoir are joined together. By using a clamping clip, instead of glue, a remanufacturer may simply and easily separate the cartridge on its next remanufacturing cycle by simply removing the clips and separating the developer roller housing from the toner hopper reservoir. No sawing is required on the second cycle when a reusable clip system is used.
However, a unique issue has arisen in newer toner cartridges. In these different cartridges, when the toner hopper reservoir and the developer roller housing are mated together, only one combined flange is created. Therefore, only one side of the combined assembly may be clamped using these clamping clips. The other side of the combined assembly lacks the surface area, a lip or protrusion to mount any type of clamping device like the clip. The only option would be to bond the two surfaces together by either gluing or welding the joint. The present invention introduces a way of creating a mounting surface to alleviate this issue and provide a way to secure the area without a flange.
In the case where no easily externally connectable surfaces exist on a toner cartridge that is being reassembled, one will need to be introduced in order to efficiently reconnect the pieces. A securing fixture will provide one of the means to secure a toner hopper reservoir to a developer roller housing without having to glue or ultrasonically weld the two pieces together. The securing fixture will have a lip that will protrude above the surface that it is mounted to. In addition, the securing fixture will have a bottom surface such that this bottom surface will be able to provide enough area to be affixed to the toner hopper reservoir. The securing fixture will be attached to the toner hopper reservoir at a mounting surface, such that the lip of the fixture will extend towards the rear of the hopper and the lip will secure a forward securing edge of the developer roller housing. The securing fixture, when mounted, must not interfere with the over all profile of the cartridge. The cartridge must fit inside the toner cartridge cavity of the printer and the securing fixture""s profile must be such that it can fit into this area inside the printer without obstruction.
By securing the developer roller housing to the toner hopper reservoir using the securing fixture, the toner cartridge may more easily be disassembled and reassembled at a later time. The securing fixture needs to be of sufficient length to be able to support the force against the lip being supplied by the forward securing edge. Once this forward securing edge is held in place by the securing fixture, clips or clips may be used to secure the other side of the combined assembly. The securing fixture is substantially rigid insuring that the developer roller housing and toner hopper reservoir will maintain proper alignment and stiffness.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides added rigidity to the toner hopper reservoir and developer roller housing once they are mated together. Other embodiments of this invention may include a type of spring, which by its nature is not rigid. If using a spring to secure the developer roller housing to the toner hopper assembly, the spring may actually be flexed when the two pieces are mated together. Regardless of the type of device used, the joint between the two pieces should be secured sufficiently so that no toner can leak out of this area.
Secondly the preferred embodiment of the present invention maintains the developer roller housing and toner hopper reservoir in proper alignment. The securing fixture of this invention does so by attaching to the toner hopper reservoir assembly as to hold the developer roller housing in the proper orientation to one another, and by adding a stiffening element perpendicular to the length of the toner hopper and developer roller housing. Additionally, this invention provides an efficient way of reassembling a toner cartridge, which may not have sufficient surface area to attach a clip.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows future recycling to be performed with much less effort as the two sections may be separated relatively easily. The securing fixture will provide a xe2x80x9cquick connectxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cquick disconnect.xe2x80x9d When using the invention in combination with clips such as those described in Stevens, the cartridge may be recycled numerous times with little or no effort involved in separating the developer roller housing from the toner hopper reservoir. An example of a toner cartridge that can employ the present invention is the HP4200 or HP4300 toner cartridge manufactured by Hewlett-Packard.